Im building my very first blaster sorcerer and I was hoping to build an electric dragon sorcerer. So I was going to go bronze dragon for the electric damage on the draconic bloodline. I was thinking maybe magic lineage trait on the lightning bolt spell? My stats on 20 point buy are str:10 Dex:12 Con:14 int:10 wis:10 and Cha:19. Im playing a human as i figured it would be my best option. How do i optimize this sorcerer to get the most "bang" for my buck?
Drop Str, you don't need it, and switch Dex and Con's stats. It never hurts to have your Cha, Dex, or Con (in that order) a bit higher. If you drop Str to a 7, you can eke Cha to a 20, which gives you an extra 1st-level spell each day and ups your save DCs by 1 as well, both important for a blaster.
Next, take the 1st-level bloodline mutation (Assuming you're not playing PFS), to eke out a bit more damage on those spells.
If you want to go all out, also look at crossblooded, with either primal (lightning elemental wildblood) or orc bloodlines as your secondary.
I'll also guide you towards the guides written for arcanist, wizards, and sorcerer blasters.
Words of Power sorcerers also make great blasters, if you're up to the potential challenge.
You'll want spell focus (evocation) as one of your 1st level feats, and possibly the greater version as well, but spell specialization is also a good choice if you don't mind a slightly lower Dex (put both it and Con to 12).
Also, general guideline: you may want to delete the other thread to keep things simple.
Daedalus the Dungeon Builder wrote: Drop Str, you don't need it, and switch Dex and Con's stats. It never hurts to have your Cha, Dex, or Con (in that order) a bit higher. If you drop Str to a 7, you can eke Cha to a 20, which gives you an extra 1st-level spell each day and ups your save DCs by 1 as well, both important for a blaster.
Next, take the 1st-level bloodline mutation (Assuming you're not playing PFS), to eke out a bit more damage on those spells.
If you want to go all out, also look at crossblooded, with either primal (lightning elemental wildblood) or orc bloodlines as your secondary.
I'll also guide you towards the guides written for arcanist, wizards, and sorcerer blasters.
Words of Power sorcerers also make great blasters, if you're up to the potential challenge.
You'll want spell focus (evocation) as one of your 1st level feats, and possibly the greater version as well, but spell specialization is also a good choice if you don't mind a slightly lower Dex (put both it and Con to 12).
Also, general guideline: you may want to delete the other thread to keep things simple.
I was hoping to not drop my stats any further as carry weight is always an issue for me in this game because I'm the everything and the kitchen sink kind of player and can't help but carry things so it's a no on the str drop. Why drop the com? I'm just curious? Isn't low con on a magic user of any kind...you know...stupid? A good hit with low con bonus could be all it takes to kill. I will keep the other suggestions on mind though the crossblooded sorcerer kind of looks terrible. They look terrible unless you multiclass that is and that, though acceptable, wasn't my goal.
Daedalus the Dungeon Builder wrote: Drop Str, you don't need it, and switch Dex and Con's stats. It never hurts to have your Cha, Dex, or Con (in that order) a bit higher. If you drop Str to a 7, you can eke Cha to a 20, which gives you an extra 1st-level spell each day and ups your save DCs by 1 as well, both important for a blaster.
Next, take the 1st-level bloodline mutation (Assuming you're not playing PFS), to eke out a bit more damage on those spells.
If you want to go all out, also look at crossblooded, with either primal (lightning elemental wildblood) or orc bloodlines as your secondary.
I'll also guide you towards the guides written for arcanist, wizards, and sorcerer blasters.
Words of Power sorcerers also make great blasters, if you're up to the potential challenge.
You'll want spell focus (evocation) as one of your 1st level feats, and possibly the greater version as well, but spell specialization is also a good choice if you don't mind a slightly lower Dex (put both it and Con to 12).
Also, general guideline: you may want to delete the other thread to keep things simple.
Also, I can't delete the other, I've tried.
Grab a handy haversack. Seriously. They weigh 5 pounds and cost 2,000 gp. Before then, buy a pony. They cost 30 gp.
Of course. You never want a Con penalty.
However, in the grand scheme of things, you'll want the +1 AC, Initiative, and to-hit the Dex grants you over the +1 HP/level. Especially with a blaster, where hitting your foes is everything.
With more Dex, you become the initiator. You go first, you dodge the attack, you land the first hit. With Con, you can stay standing for one more hit after an enemy gets too close because you haven't already killed them.
Not at all. Crossblooded is great. Granted, you start off a little slow with crossblooded, but the human FCB more than makes up for it in the long run (with the exception of 9th level). However, you can pick and choose the spells you want, get way more options for your bloodline feats, and gain an extra +1 damage/die. WoP makes it even better, as there aren't as many Words as there are spells, and the system doesn't need a lot in the way of high-level spells.
Daedalus the Dungeon Builder wrote: Grab a handy haversack. Seriously. They weigh 5 pounds and cost 2,000 gp. Before then, buy a pony. They cost 75 gp.
Of course. You never want a Con penalty.
However, in the grand scheme of things, you'll want the +1 AC, Initiative, and to-hit the Dex grants you over the +1 HP/level. Especially with a blaster, where hitting your foes is everything.
With more Dex, you become the initiator. You go first, you dodge the attack, you land the first hit. With Con, you can stay standing for one more hit after an enemy gets too close because you haven't already killed them.
Not at all. Crossblooded is great. Granted, you start off a little slow with crossblooded, but the human FCB more than makes up for it in the long run (with the exception of 9th level). However, you can pick and choose the spells you want, get way more options for your bloodline feats, and gain an extra +1 damage/die. WoP makes it even better, as there aren't as many Words as there are spells, and the system doesn't need a lot in the way of high-level spells.
The handy haversack won't help if the money isn't there at low levels, a pony needs a bit and bridle, food, pack saddle, etc. I'm not spending all my starting gold on a pony, no thank you. I'm keeping my str. The difference is one spell slot, that feels incredibly irrelivent. I can see your point on dex and con, though don't you also have slow spell progression with crossblood?
You probably can't delete the other thread because I posted there.
avr wrote: First look at Bloodline Mutations. They're made for blasters.
When blasting with electricity Empower Spell is the first generally useful metamagic feat. Piercing Spell, Lingering Spell or Reach Spell could theoretically be useful but you're more likely to spend feats on the simple numbers-buffing of Spell Focus, Spell Penetration, Varisian Tattoo & maybe Spell Specialization.
The human alternate favored class bonus is indeed good. Half-elves, half-orcs and gillmen can get the same though, it's not essential - the human extra feat is good but doesn't make them the only possibility.
Crossblooded is IMO a pain. You delay access to new spell levels by one character level, you don't get as many spells - I can never have too many personally - and then there's the -2 to Will saves. Technically you can't take bloodline mutations with it, though your GM might not realise or care.
There's certainly positives, most bloodlines have some poor spells, many have all poor bonus feats, and aside from Arcane all have at least one bloodline power you couldn't care less about - crossblooded solves all those problems. Plus the double bloodline arcana. I just wouldn't go for it myself.
I have found that asking some other person in the party to carry things like food & water can help with the carrying capacity, provided there is a musclebound hero present (in the game I'm currently running the highest strength belongs to an elven wizard - 13!)
avr wrote: You probably can't delete the other thread because I posted there.
avr wrote: First look at Bloodline Mutations. They're made for blasters.
When blasting with electricity Empower Spell is the first generally useful metamagic feat. Piercing Spell, Lingering Spell or Reach Spell could theoretically be useful but you're more likely to spend feats on the simple numbers-buffing of Spell Focus, Spell Penetration, Varisian Tattoo & maybe Spell Specialization.
The human alternate favored class bonus is indeed good. Half-elves, half-orcs and gillmen can get the same though, it's not essential - the human extra feat is good but doesn't make them the only possibility.
Crossblooded is IMO a pain. You delay access to new spell levels by one character level, you don't get as many spells - I can never have too many personally - and then there's the -2 to Will saves. Technically you can't take bloodline mutations with it, though your GM might not realise or care.
There's certainly positives, most bloodlines have some poor spells, many have all poor bonus feats, and aside from Arcane all have at least one bloodline power you couldn't care less about - crossblooded solves all those problems. Plus the double bloodline arcana. I just wouldn't go for it myself.
I have found that asking some other person in the party to carry things like food & water can help with the carrying capacity, provided there is a musclebound hero present (in the game I'm currently running the highest strength belongs to an elven wizard - 13!)
Always swooping in to help solve my problems arent you Avr? haha. Well, im not a big fan of the downsides to crossblooded at all, it seems like a pretty thick set of detriments for the nifty little bonuses you get. I was wondering why my app didnt recognize the option to take bloodline mutations with crossblooded and now i see why. If crossblooded really was the way to go then its something ill think on though the will save issue sucks especially as i cant sacrifice stats to help balance out my detriments on it. The lack of spells is annoying as it can get especially for a sorcerer who already barely gets s%~~ for spells. The human FCB helps for it for sure but the delayed access to new spell levels is really annoying.
I kind of disagree with Daedalus on quite a few things
1) cross blooded is a pain and the human FCB can be used to cover it but even so it essentially saying you get 10 less spells than you could be getting and your stronger ones slower (a huge loss) for a bonus on damage that doesn't technically stack with bloodline mutations anyway. So in my opinion drop it pick up blood havoc in place of claws.
2) for first level feats spell specialisation is a good pick but only if you have a spell you want to specialise in at first level, nevertheless you want it eventually
3) as for magical lineage lightning bolt, it depends how long your game is going to last because into the very late game chan lightning is much much better. I am fairy anti the trait Wayang spell hunter but in this case Wayang lightening bolt and magical lineage chain lightning may be in order.
4) if your game is going late your feats want to be working towards spell perfection chain lightning
5) I side with higher con over Dex, as a human your FCB is going to be in spells not Hit points. It does give bonuses to AC, initiative and to hit but from level 6 on you don't care about to hit and Sorcs are never going to have good AC defence comes from invisibility, displacement, flight, and eventually things like emergency force sphere and contingency so having good AC is difficult expensive and pointless in my opinion. So really the only lasting benefit of it is +1 initiative and +1 reflex vs +1 hitnpoont and +1 fort which is a more important save.
The problem lightning Sorcs have is before level 6 they don't have any stand out spells shocking grasp is okay but ideally you don't want to be that close to people fortunately burning hands and scorching ray do benefit from blood havoc, but it may be easier just to go with control spells (colour spray, create pit) until level 6, sorta depends what level you're starting. Spell speclisation at five does mean that scorching ray can do 8D6+8 which is really good enough at 5 but that's only for one level and firing into melee will be a problem for you.
Here is the thing about crossblooded, if your campaign doesn't have the ever present magic shop, ie in downtown you can just buy magic items within reason, then it is hard to use. Not being able to buy pages of spell knowledge hurt. But you also get a lot out of crossblooded. For instance, you are a lv 7 crossblooded stormborn/elemental air sorcerer and your fighting a room full of big scaries, but nobody is in a line for lightning bolt. But, aha, they are in perfect formation for a fireball! Now your going first because of that awesome imp initiative bonus feat you just got to pick instead of pointblank shot or dodge, but your DC is only 10+5+3=18, but wait you have spell focus and greater spell focus evocation so its 20. Man if only you could make it electric, oh wait you can because of you elemental bloodline arcana. Now because of your fireball is now electric you get your elemental focus feats! Now your dc is 22. But aww man, the GM rolled a 17's and the monsters all have +5 reflex if only your dc was one higher, oh wait it is, your bloodline arcana for stormborn makes your dc now 23 for a 3rd level spell. With this set up it's not unbelievable to be hitting the 30's with your dc's if you focus a certain spell.
Personally in a enviroment where your gm decides all your magical loot and you cant buy stuff on your own, it's a tough call for me to say be a crossblooded. But if you can buy your own items, hell yah. Just remember sure it sucks that you dont get that 9th lv spell at 18, but you get those slots, just meta magic some s!&@ into them. sure you cant cast ride the lightning, but with a trait you can still cast a quicken chains of fire spell and you still how those 9th level spell slots.
Lastly I really reccomend no matter what you do to think about doing one of the bloodlines that let you change elements, then try to not take electric spells, pick others so that when you come across the creature immune to electricity you arn't worthless.
I would prioritise Con over Dex and take Noble Scion of War which lets you use Charisma for initiative instead of Dex. Eventually you will want to pick up a circlet of persuasion which will add another +3 to your initiative as it affects charisma checks, not just skill checks. I would also grab a wand of heightened awareness as soon as possible and make liberal use of it.
For blasters your main issue is the limited number of feats. You want:
At least one initiative booster, Noble Scion or Improved Initiative.
Spell Focus and Greater
Spell Penetration and Grater
At least 3 metamagic feats before level 15, empower and quicken and then at least one from dazing, persistent or intensified. You may want elemental spell if focusing heavily on one element but an elemental rod or picking up dragon's breath is a better option.
These lead to Spell Perfection at level 15.
Spell specialisation can be useful, especially in the earlier levels but it requires you to have an Int of 13 which is a pretty hefty investment. Likewise Varisian Tattoo is decent as caster level is important for blasting. Both get doubled when spell perfection comes online.
Magical Lineage and Wayang Spell Hunter are pretty much your default traits.
I would avoid crossblooded like the plague unless you want to be a one shot wonder who is two whole levels behind prepared casters to gain access to new spells. Blood Havoc is significantly better.
Tattooed Sorcerer is a decent archetype for blasting as it gives you Varisian Tattoo and a familiar.
Noble Scion of war is certainly a good shout. With that you could probably drop Dex to 10 and boost Int to 12, 13 with a single drop of strength to 9, it shouldn't hurt your carrying capacity too much and now you get a bonus skill, which Sorcs simply don't have enough of (especially since you need 15 ranks in spell craft) and you can use spell specialization.
Blood Intensity is better than Intensify spell if you're gonna pick up Spell Spec and Tattoo, since it takes the 5 dice cap away. Its worth picking some prayer beads of karma too. That means 10 minutes of +4 CL thats a +10 CL with spell perfection. If you hit 30 Cha that means things like intensified chain lightning hit 30, empowered 45 (if they stack which I think they do?) for 45D6+90, Maximized rod, means 15D6+270 and you can quicken another one and intensify that too, tak on another rod boost and you're hitting 510+15D6. (average DPR 562)
Not to mention is long range and has upto 20 targets :P.
which I'm guessing is enough?
Blood intensity does have a cap on the number of times you can use it perday but I mean how often do you really need to do that^^^? Also it means you can pick up dazing or persistent.
This build is extremely late game though (like really blows up at about level 16) so definitely don't go for it if your game is gonna be short xD
Call him The Maestro.
When people ask why, say he is a great conductor.
Backpack wrote: Here is the thing about crossblooded, if your campaign doesn't have the ever present magic shop, ie in downtown you can just buy magic items within reason, then it is hard to use. Not being able to buy pages of spell knowledge hurt. But you also get a lot out of crossblooded. For instance, you are a lv 7 crossblooded stormborn/elemental air sorcerer and your fighting a room full of big scaries, but nobody is in a line for lightning bolt. But, aha, they are in perfect formation for a fireball! Now your going first because of that awesome imp initiative bonus feat you just got to pick instead of pointblank shot or dodge, but your DC is only 10+5+3=18, but wait you have spell focus and greater spell focus evocation so its 20. Man if only you could make it electric, oh wait you can because of you elemental bloodline arcana. Now because of your fireball is now electric you get your elemental focus feats! Now your dc is 22. But aww man, the GM rolled a 17's and the monsters all have +5 reflex if only your dc was one higher, oh wait it is, your bloodline arcana for stormborn makes your dc now 23 for a 3rd level spell. With this set up it's not unbelievable to be hitting the 30's with your dc's if you focus a certain spell.
Personally in a enviroment where your gm decides all your magical loot and you cant buy stuff on your own, it's a tough call for me to say be a crossblooded. But if you can buy your own items, hell yah. Just remember sure it sucks that you dont get that 9th lv spell at 18, but you get those slots, just meta magic some s++% into them. sure you cant cast ride the lightning, but with a trait you can still cast a quicken chains of fire spell and you still how those 9th level spell slots.
Lastly I really reccomend no matter what you do to think about doing one of the bloodlines that let you change elements, then try to not take electric spells, pick others so that when you come across the creature immune to electricity you arn't worthless.
What exactly is blood havok? Do you have a link? Also, firing into melee isn't so much an issue if I take the ranger gear that kills the -4 penalty to it.
Backpack wrote: Here is the thing about crossblooded, if your campaign doesn't have the ever present magic shop, ie in downtown you can just buy magic items within reason, then it is hard to use. Not being able to buy pages of spell knowledge hurt. But you also get a lot out of crossblooded. For instance, you are a lv 7 crossblooded stormborn/elemental air sorcerer and your fighting a room full of big scaries, but nobody is in a line for lightning bolt. But, aha, they are in perfect formation for a fireball! Now your going first because of that awesome imp initiative bonus feat you just got to pick instead of pointblank shot or dodge, but your DC is only 10+5+3=18, but wait you have spell focus and greater spell focus evocation so its 20. Man if only you could make it electric, oh wait you can because of you elemental bloodline arcana. Now because of your fireball is now electric you get your elemental focus feats! Now your dc is 22. But aww man, the GM rolled a 17's and the monsters all have +5 reflex if only your dc was one higher, oh wait it is, your bloodline arcana for stormborn makes your dc now 23 for a 3rd level spell. With this set up it's not unbelievable to be hitting the 30's with your dc's if you focus a certain spell.
Personally in a enviroment where your gm decides all your magical loot and you cant buy stuff on your own, it's a tough call for me to say be a crossblooded. But if you can buy your own items, hell yah. Just remember sure it sucks that you dont get that 9th lv spell at 18, but you get those slots, just meta magic some s~@$ into them. sure you cant cast ride the lightning, but with a trait you can still cast a quicken chains of fire spell and you still how those 9th level spell slots.
Lastly I really reccomend no matter what you do to think about doing one of the bloodlines that let you change elements, then try to not take electric spells, pick others so that when you come across the creature immune to electricity you arn't worthless.
This advice is really pretty solid though I still would rather keep one of those two bloodlines from crossblooded as draconic as dragons are a big piece of the character and I can't drop that. Draconic also has some pretty solid bonuses. I'd go draconic and elemental/storm. We typically can find most things at a magic ship from one gm but the other sometimes just doesn't let us find basically anything unless we are in a capital city :/ how does my fireball being electric still help me against things that have electric resistance? Also, I mentioned that I'd be picking up sonic damage spells on top of electric.
WagnerSika wrote: Call him The Maestro.
When people ask why, say he is a great conductor.
That joke is fantastic seriously, though I think I have a name for him already. I was thinking something like Nebulous, dragon Lord of storms. Something totally nuts and over the top because of his ego and goals.
Backpack wrote: Here is the thing about crossblooded, if your campaign doesn't have the ever present magic shop, ie in downtown you can just buy magic items within reason, then it is hard to use. Not being able to buy pages of spell knowledge hurt. But you also get a lot out of crossblooded. For instance, you are a lv 7 crossblooded stormborn/elemental air sorcerer and your fighting a room full of big scaries, but nobody is in a line for lightning bolt. But, aha, they are in perfect formation for a fireball! Now your going first because of that awesome imp initiative bonus feat you just got to pick instead of pointblank shot or dodge, but your DC is only 10+5+3=18, but wait you have spell focus and greater spell focus evocation so its 20. Man if only you could make it electric, oh wait you can because of you elemental bloodline arcana. Now because of your fireball is now electric you get your elemental focus feats! Now your dc is 22. But aww man, the GM rolled a 17's and the monsters all have +5 reflex if only your dc was one higher, oh wait it is, your bloodline arcana for stormborn makes your dc now 23 for a 3rd level spell. With this set up it's not unbelievable to be hitting the 30's with your dc's if you focus a certain spell.
Personally in a enviroment where your gm decides all your magical loot and you cant buy stuff on your own, it's a tough call for me to say be a crossblooded. But if you can buy your own items, hell yah. Just remember sure it sucks that you dont get that 9th lv spell at 18, but you get those slots, just meta magic some s~%~ into them. sure you cant cast ride the lightning, but with a trait you can still cast a quicken chains of fire spell and you still how those 9th level spell slots.
Lastly I really reccomend no matter what you do to think about doing one of the bloodlines that let you change elements, then try to not take electric spells, pick others so that when you come across the creature immune to electricity you arn't worthless.
I found blood havoc(havok, however its spelled.) It seems really irrelevant since crossblooded or not im going with the draconic bloodline and it gets the same bonus without me having to having to have it from the same school it just has to have my energy type.
They stack. +2 damage vs +1. It's an overall 22% increase on a spell like lightning bolt. Crossblooded orc would take you to +3 for another 18% increase in damage.
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